1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a ceramic valve core, and more particularly to an innovative valve core with a multi-stage positioning structure.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
The ceramic valve core is commonly used to adjust and control a water supply and temperature state via a swaying motion of a vertical brake valve handle. When conventional ceramic valve cores are used along with brake valve handles without multi-stage positioning properties, any manual operation will make it possible to turn the water tap to maximum water flow, thus leading to waste of water resources. Subsequently, a brake valve handle is developed with an improved multi-stage positioning structure. For a typical positioning structure, some projecting points are formed on the external wall of the valve handle, while a few positioning grooves are placed correspondingly on the body of the ceramic valve core. Therefore, when the brake valve handle sways, the projecting points can be snapped into the positioning grooves depending upon varying preset angles.
This prior art structure is found to have the following disadvantages in actual operation:                1. Since the projecting points are directly preformed on the brake valve handle, the growing utilization of the brake valve handle will surely lead to wearing, deformation and thinning of projecting points with prejudice to the service life of the multi-stage positioning structure.        2. The typical projecting point is snapped tightly into the positioning groove with a fixed strength. However, ceramic valve cores are often marketed around the world, making the fixed positioning structure unsuitable for the numerous markets with a view to different operating forces and habits of customers.        
Thus, to overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it would be an advancement in the art to provide an improved structure that can significantly improve efficacy.
To this end, the inventor has provided the present invention of practicability after deliberate design and evaluation based on years of experience in the production, development and design of related products.